Historic elders home nearing completion

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After putting heads together and brainstorming organizations which could help, Habitat for Humanity was one of the first which came to mind.

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“Their mandate has always been low-income families but never anything on First Nations land. I was at an infrastructure conference in Toronto where I approached the manager of indigenous housing for Habitat, Jay Shree-Thakar, who was very receptive. Although at the time she said ‘this is not really our mandate but we’ll take it back to our board and discuss it,’” Merasty said.

Two months later Habitat for Humanity approached Merasty again and said they will do the project.

“They had to change their whole national mandate on physical policy because part of this too is being able to come on the reserve,” he said.

Habitat for Humanity determined elders homes would fit in the organization’s low-income mandate.

“It’s awesome because now other First Nations across Canada can approach Habitat for similar projects on reserve,” Merasty said. “It’s definitely a source of pride for our community and we’d be more than happy to showcase how we did it and how other First Nations communities can do it across Canada.”

As of right now, a lot of elders are living in their own homes where they will remain until the lodge is completed. Once vacated, elders homes will be retrofitted and refurbished to meet the needs of Flying Dust families.

Carolyn Lachance, office manager and executive assistant for Flying Dust said the lodge will be used for more than just elders housing.

“It’s meant to be a place where we can reconnect our youth to our elders,” she said. “We can take classes from the school and go listen to stories or do workshops with the elders.”

She added the lodge is a project the First Nation has been working towards for the better part of 20 years.

It’s through the success the reserve had with investments mixed with the Habitat for Humanity partnership which made the project a reality.

The lodge is built with ten units. Four of them are two bedroom suites and six are bachelor suites. In the front of the building is a common area for the elders to eat, mingle and hang out.

Elders are expected to start moving in at the end of August.

cswiderski@jpbg.ca

On twitter: @coltonswiderski